Abstract

Building on previous studies I have undertaken in the educational context, this paper offers observations arising from my ongoing research into attitudes and approaches towards music creation engendered by digital tools. The primary focus is on evaluating paradigms of software interface design (with a particular focus on the Digital Audio Workstation (DAW) and attendant third party plugins), ranging from the virtual environment scenario in which hardware tools are painstakingly modeled to imitate the real world of studio production, to interfaces which are rather more abstract in their visual structures, often encouraging the musician to think in terms low level computer process. The user’s capacity to negotiate the constraints of the tool and assimilate its particular language is of importance in either case, whether engaging with visual metaphors for familiar technologies in terms of their real-world practical application or learning system-specific languages which constitute the building blocks of musical processes that are highly determined. The question concerning the extent of the software interface’s propensity to shape aspects of musical detail, structure and style is at the heart of this discussion and is considered with reference to established theories of creativity (especially Csikszentmihalyi’s ‘systems’ theory).